[judson_w]

A SUT with a preamp I can see being maybe possible. An SUT on its own... I do not know. Schiit currently does not make their own transformers, so that is either a drastic change in production or... putting a transformer they buy from one producer and in a box from another producer, and add a few connectors so you can hook it up.

Yes, I realize they can break their own mold from time to time. The Sol is an example but the Sol is also an example of the challenges of that. Additionally, I am not sure how much of the Sol is custom made at Schiit as opposed to the parts are sent in and then assembled at Schiit. Note they are not making their own cartridges for the Sol because I imagine that is quite a bit outside of what they do. (It is also why I am not holding my breath for any sort of tapedeck; I am not sure how hard it is to find a good source for quality tapeheads).

I am all for a tube phono preamp though.

 

[PioBeer]

I wonder how much experience Mike and Jason have with tapeheads? Hopefully Mike was a big tapehead himself back in the day and is itchin' to have a go at it.

 

[hearditontheX]

Regarding the email...yep, we're turning on marketing. Finally. Production has reached the point where it can keep up (mostly), so it's time to fix marketing.

This email is the first one we've sent in 2 years. I expect to send one a quarter or one every two months (depending on what's meaningful to send) going forward. We're also cleaning up the other campaigns. Hell, until Saturday we were advertising products we haven't made for 18 months, or tracking through to final sale. That's fixed. And we're trying some new things. We're already getting some very interesting data. It's kinda fun to get back into this after shuttering Centric.

So, while we've been called "just a marketing company," before, that hasn't been true. We've paid very little attention to it, actually. Now that's changing. We'll see how it goes.

I was surprised and pleased to get an email from Schiit. Clicking on the “Learn More” button, I was hoping for a two-channel guide, not the Schittr. No biggie. I love the images, I figure there is always something quirky going on. The cat looks annoyed.

 

[Robert Padgett]

I use a Sonore MicroRendu (a dedicated ethernet to USB bridge) into Eitr into Gumby at my stereo. I don't use my computer except to RIP my Cds. Control Point is iPad.... So that is why to USE a RPi so you don't need to use a full PC to run your music.

Maybe I just didn't understand it, but I have failed in every attempt to run RasPi with a headless app on my Android. I still use a 7" LCD monitor and a wireless keyboard/mouse, running Audacious in Raspian.

 

[438555]

Maybe I just didn't understand it, but I have failed in every attempt to run RasPi with a headless app on my Android. I still use a 7" LCD monitor and a wireless keyboard/mouse, running Audacious in Raspian.

I don’t regret buying a lifetime subscription for Roon. This makes it super simple to control any endpoint, including raspb pi, from my phone or any device that runs the app.

 

[Gazny]

Maybe I just didn't understand it, but I have failed in every attempt to run RasPi with a headless app on my Android. I still use a 7" LCD monitor and a wireless keyboard/mouse, running Audacious in Raspian.

What app? You can try to dm me with more info

 

[HumanFly]

Maybe I just didn't understand it, but I have failed in every attempt to run RasPi with a headless app on my Android. I still use a 7" LCD monitor and a wireless keyboard/mouse, running Audacious in Raspian.

Try Volumio! It`s the easiest way to get going and it makes the curve less steep. You only need to put the imgage on the card. Obviously insert the card. Wait a little and then look for it on your router so you know it`s IP-address and type that into your browser. The rest is all automated in Volumio. (maybe Rune too but it`s been a while since I used Rune.) Roon also works pretty easy if you install ropieee, but I`d still say Volumio is easier.

 

[Brubacca]

Maybe I just didn't understand it, but I have failed in every attempt to run RasPi with a headless app on my Android. I still use a 7" LCD monitor and a wireless keyboard/mouse, running Audacious in Raspian.

I also use Volumio on an older atom PC. I control it with the Linn Kazoo app. You need a DLNA server (I use Asset Upnp, but have also used MiniServer and MiniDlna). Tell Kazoo where the server is and use Volumio as the target.

I'm also going to try a rPI 4 when they are more available. I'd be happy to help over PM or e-mail.

Sounds to me like you also have your music on the rPi which makes it different to what I am doing. I have all my music on the network on a Synology NAS serving up the data.

Your setup is something that I am going to toy around with when I can get a rPi. My plan is to have a 32GB SD card for the OS and 500GB SSD as my music drive.

 

[Ableza]

Complete aside to all the Pi talk. I tried one. I also tried a few other cheap microcomputer solutions, including using a PogoPlug as a Squeezebox emulator. Can they work? Yes. Are they cheap? Yes. Can they sound good? Yes, or maybe, depending. Are they easy? NO. I finally got sick and tired of crashing, rebooting, reconfiguring the network, doing software updates, tweaking, fooling around with third party control apps, trying to optimize sound in devices not designed to produce audio, and physically looking at DIY devices. I chucked them all and invested in dedicated devices designed for serving and streaming audio and a ROON lifetime subscription. Did it cost more? Yes. But in my opinion, not only does it sound better I have stopped having to mess with things all the time. It just works. I am much happier.

So if you like to mess with things and do DIY and constantly tweak software and hardware, go for it. If like me you just want a good sounding music server system with stability and ease of use, there are many far better solutions than anything Pi.

[/soapbox]

 

[Whazzzup]

Its very costly but a quality server streamer does not only the best job, but DIY? you got to be kidding. Plug n play dsd 128 or pcm 386 and never look back.

 

[golfbravobravo]

Complete aside to all the Pi talk. I tried one. I also tried a few other cheap microcomputer solutions, including using a PogoPlug as a Squeezebox emulator. Can they work? Yes. Are they cheap? Yes. Can they sound good? Yes, or maybe, depending. Are they easy? NO. I finally got sick and tired of crashing, rebooting, reconfiguring the network, doing software updates, tweaking, fooling around with third party control apps, trying to optimize sound in devices not designed to produce audio, and physically looking at DIY devices. I chucked them all and invested in dedicated devices designed for serving and streaming audio and a ROON lifetime subscription. Did it cost more? Yes. But in my opinion, not only does it sound better I have stopped having to mess with things all the time. It just works. I am much happier.

So if you like to mess with things and do DIY and constantly tweak software and hardware, go for it. If like me you just want a good sounding music server system with stability and ease of use, there are many far better solutions than anything Pi.

[/soapbox]

It's interesting to hear tales of the issues folks are running into. I have a number of RPis (6 running DietPi and RoonBridge as endpoints, 1 running ISSabove, 1 running PiAware aircraft tracking system, 1 running Raspian Buster desktop on my electronics desk and a few ad hoc experimental things such as speech recognition). My experience with all of these is as follows:

You have to WANT to play with Linux and be prepared learn command line stuff.

You have to learn about subsystems and integrating them (I have a variety of soundboard HATs) - especially to avoid e.g. the endpoint turning on at full volume.

As stated, you are responsible for updates, though this CAN be automated. I don't find the need to mess or fiddle once things are setup. The bedroom endpoint has run for a year with no work.

As far as sound goes, I have no complaints on any of the rooms, including the Schiit stack of Freya+, Vidar and Tektons. Perhaps I am missing something and will discover it it, but I get superlative music on that system.

Pis are stable. The aircraft tracking system is in the top of the attack, close to the antenna and just runs. Once in a while ( my avoidance task) I'll ssh into them and run an update, but mostly its a web browser thing.

To Robert's OP, I don't understand the reference to Android. Perhaps, Robert, you can describe your end-to-end system and that might enable pointers to improve.

Cheers

 

[FrivolsListener]

@Jason Stoddard I wanted to throw in my $0.02 on the shipping stuff.

First, a set up. I live in the last mile. Really the last mile. USPS, FedEx, and UPS seem to do well. Amazon has problems, and trying to get a message to the right person at Amazon is absolutely impossible -- everything is so siloed that the different support centers don't talk to each other, and if you get a person on text, they'll "have someone call you" which means that you get connected to a call center (not even the right one) and they think you called them.

So, why does Amazon have a problem? There's no cell service here, so Google Maps or equivalent tools simply stop working. You have to use old-fashioned paper maps, which are increasingly hard to find these days.

Amazon drivers -- if they can hang onto them, which is hard to imagine given what Amazon pays -- eventually learn remote areas like my neighborhood of 400, but new drivers go through the same problems.

(I actually like having no cell service. Keeps people out, and I can connect my cell phone through WiFi at home, and use a POTS wire line for everything else.)

 

[Ableza]

You have to WANT to play with Linux and be prepared learn command line stuff.

You have to learn about subsystems and integrating them (I have a variety of soundboard HATs) - especially to avoid e.g. the endpoint turning on at full volume.

As stated, you are responsible for updates, though this CAN be automated. I don't find the need to mess or fiddle once things are setup. The bedroom endpoint has run for a year with no work.

Exactly. And I don't want to do all that. I am not an IT geek. Also, in my experience, about half the time after setting them up when I tried to go back a few days later and play music again in that zone the little bugger had dropped off the netwoprk requiring rebooting and futzing around to play again. With my Rendus and Roon this has never happened. YMMV.

 

[MatthiasP]

I'm also using a Raspberry 3 as a Roon endpoint. It gets the music via a CABLED network connection from a NAS, (and I'm waiting for the Unison USB update for my Yggdrasil).
My setup is so redundant as I would hope for an expensive endpoint!
What's important to get it stable?
Use a wired network. I don't trust wireless in general. Set up a fixed up in your router!
Use a quality SD card. I only use Sandisk!
Use a different device for music storage! Storage is a different task, as is music streaming, as is a music endpoint. My approach: Use the correct tools for the job. Multitools always suck, I mean, don't work well. You want reliability, don't you?

I have extremely good experience with Dietpi. I used Volumio 2 years ago, and it was great to setup, but always left me with the feel that this is a diy solution. But 2 years in IT is nearly an epoch.
I've heard great things about other distributions as well. Try them out! Not everything is for everybody! This is the power of Linux, there are more flavors like the Microsoft or Apple world, or like blue or red!

 

[Robert Padgett]

Complete aside to all the Pi talk. I tried one. I also tried a few other cheap microcomputer solutions, including using a PogoPlug as a Squeezebox emulator. Can they work? Yes. Are they cheap? Yes. Can they sound good? Yes, or maybe, depending. Are they easy? NO. I finally got sick and tired of crashing, rebooting, reconfiguring the network, doing software updates, tweaking, fooling around with third-party control apps, trying to optimize sound in devices not designed to produce audio, and physically looking at DIY devices. I chucked them all and invested in dedicated devices designed for serving and streaming audio and a ROON lifetime subscription. Did it cost more? Yes. But in my opinion, not only does it sound better I have stopped having to mess with things all the time. It just works. I am much happier.

So if you like to mess with things and do DIY and constantly tweak software and hardware, go for it. If like me you just want a good sounding music server system with stability and ease of use, there are many far better solutions than anything Pi.

[/soapbox]

That is the point I am at...RasPi is an sftp endpoint in the bedroom works fine, simple to manage. I just want an Eitr before they cease to exist to run USB from my Intel NUC to my ModiMB, which feeds the Valhalla 2. One computer, one screen, one remote location. Simple safe and effective. I have had gurus walk me through the Volumio, and every flavor out there. I found a mouse and a KB, with Audacious to be safe, legal and effective. No wifi, all ethernet, no security breaches, just plain old Vanilla FLAC files made SPDIF...